RAT-PIE. 131 



taining sixteen large rats, when a knock at the door was heard, and 

 in a few minutes grandmamma, accompanied by two young ladies, 

 was announced. Except their savoury pie, the young people had 

 nothing in the house to offer their unexpected guests for dinner, 

 and, what was still more inconvenient, being some distance from 

 a market, nothing could be procured. Undaunted, however, the 

 eldest son, who presided at the table, invited the visitors to sit down 

 to dinner, and, addressing his grandmother, asked whether he should 

 help her to some gull-pie. The old lady expressed her astonishment 

 at the idea of their having such a dish for dinner, but at last con- 

 sented, as did also the young ladies, to take a small piece. This was 

 followed by larger helpings, and, like the rest of the diners, the old 

 lady made a hearty meal. Having come some distance grandmamma 

 stopped the night, and next morning at the breakfast-table, to the 

 great amusement of the children, expressed a wish to have some of 

 the " gull" pie which she had enjoyed so much on the previous day. 

 Inquiries being made below-stairs, it was found that the servants 

 had devoured the fragments. The young lady visitors, too, it was 

 said, were afterwards constantly asking their gentlemen friends, in 

 the season, to shoot them some gulls, so that they might try their 

 hands at making the delicious pie. 



Naturally this account aroused a good deal of at- 

 tention, and my father was shortly the recipient of 

 numberless letters, some simply making inquiries as 

 to the proper way of preparing the novel dainty for 

 table, some asking whether the newspaper reports could 

 possibly be accurate, and some abusing him in the 

 roundest terms for even mentioning the flesh of so 

 repulsive a creature as a possible article of diet. 



I quote verbatim et literatim the most amusing 

 of these last : 



RESPECTED SIR, April 21st, 1879. 



I had occasion on the 13th of this month to look in our 

 weekly paper and in doing so I noticed your lecture on rat pie I do 



J 2 



